Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Department of OFWs or Much Better; OFW Healthcare or Pension Plan? What Do You Prefer?

During the early days of the President in the office, President Duterte said that he wants all OFWs to go home and that working abroad will be a thing of the past by providing opportunities to the Filipinos to do business in the country that can sustain their needs.Recently on during his meeting with the Filipino community in Bahrain, he said that the Department of OFWs will be ready in a few months.Why do we need to create a department of OFWs when the original plan is to bring OFWs home for good? Confusing, indeed.

Department of Labor and Employment Silvestre Bello III said that creating a Department of OFWs will be somewhat in contrast to the original plan, which is to bring all OFWs back to the country. Though some individuals pursue it, it is definitely not a good option. It is like encouraging more Filipinos to work overseas instead of convincing them to do business and make a sustainable livelihood in the country through income generating opportunities like venturing into entrepreneurship or starting a small business.

"We have to consider that the final program of our government under President Rodrigo Roa Duterte is to repatriate our overseas Filipino workers. He (Duterte) would like to create more jobs in our country so that there won't be a necessity for our countrymen to go abroad," Sec. Bello said.

"Our final goal is to bring them back to the country and we can only do that if we give them decent jobs, decent pay," he added.

The creation of the new department will not be easy. It may have to be approved by the Congress and of course, it will need funds- a lot of it.

But do OFW's really need a new department?

Why not devote government resources to something that can be more directly beneficial to OFWs and their families like OFW Health Care or an OFW Pension that they can use in their retirement?

What would OFWs prefer? Adequate income so that they may live a comfortable life with their family or to spend their entire lives leaving their families behind working abroad?

If the goal of the Duterte government is to end the generation of OFWs in the future, then the Department of OFWs will be rendered useless and should not be considered in the first place.